The Bachelor Australia will premiere on Wednesday, 12 August at 7.30pm, on 10, as Locky Gilbert goes from the tribal councils of Australian Survivor to the rose ceremonies of The Bachelor. The show joins The Masked Singer which premiered earlier in the week on 10‘s schedule.
An experienced cave diver, base jumper, mountaineer and athlete the 30-year-old adventure guide and self-confessed meat pie and sausage roll connoisseur describes himself as a hopeless romantic who wears his heart on his sleeve, he is looking for a driven and outdoorsy woman with a wicked sense of adventure. Someone with whom he can take on the world and snuggle up to on the couch.
“I really want to find love. I’m pretty content with my life at the moment. I go on these crazy adventures, but I’d love someone to share the memories with.
“I’ve got best friends, but I want to find that one best friend that I can spend the rest of my life with. This is an amazing opportunity to hopefully find someone special at the end.”
See more: The Bachelor Australia: Navigating love during COVID-19
In July filming resumed after being suspended due to COVID-19 with extensive protocols in place to protect the cast and crew during the pandemic crisis.
The Bachelor Australia’s executive producer Hilary Innes said that two episodes were produced with the contestants living back home but they continued to have Zoom dates, cocktail parties and rose ceremonies in lockdown.
“Instead of stopping filming we continued to record what happened when everyone was sent home, which made for very fascinating viewing.
“There was obviously chemistry happening between some people and Locky and we needed to keep everyone engaged with the process and each other.”
Innes described Gilbert as an alpha male who is willing to go down on bended knee for the right girl.
“There is no rhyme or reason to selecting The Bachelor. We went with Tim Robards and Sam Wood who were tall dark and handsome alpha males who knew what they wanted. Matt Agnew was more the cerebral handsome which we had never had before which was very interesting. The Honey Badger Nick Cummins was more quirky and funny with a big profile. Locky was a little bit in between.”
Innes explained that this year we will see another first for the Australian format of the show.
“Locky by his own admission falls in love with more than one girl, where before we haven’t found love and famously the Honey Badger (Nick Cummins) couldn’t choose someone, we have a Bachelor who has fallen in love with more than one girl which is a first for us in Australia.”